Patsy's Travels

Arizona

Hi Jolly's Tomb, Quartzsite, Arizona

May 2017

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Video of Hi Jolly Monument, Quartzsite, AZ May 2017 (1 of 2)	Video of Hi Jolly Monument, Quartzsite, AZ May 2017 (2 of 2)

In 1856, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (later President of the Confederacy) had a novel idea: transporting freight and people across the desert Southwest on camels. He eventually imported over 70 of the beasts. Along with the first batch came a Syrian caretaker, Hadji Ali. His American masters called him Hi Jolly.

A plaque on Hi Jolly's tomb says of the camel experiment: "A fair trial might have resulted in complete success." But the Civil War intervened, Jefferson Davis changed jobs, and without his support the project was abandoned. The camels were set free to fend for themselves in the desert near Quartzsite.

Hi Jolly remained, living into his seventies. The locals were so fond of him that, after he died, they spent several weeks building Hi Jolly a special pyramid tomb, made of multicolored petrified wood and quartz. It was dedicated on Jan. 4, 1903. Thirty-three years later the Arizona Highway Department came along and cemented a bronze plaque to the tomb, telling Hi Jolly's story, and topped the pyramid with a metal camel silhouette.

In those long-ago days the Quartzsite cemetery was remote, just bare ground and a few scrubby sagebrush at the edge of an obscure desert outpost. Now you have to drive through the very busy Quartzsite flea market to get to Hi Jolly. Still, his tomb is the biggest thing back in its tiny patch of desert solitude.

The camels, by the way, outlived Jefferson Davis, Hi Jolly, and even the cementing of the plaque. Their last reported sighting was in 1942.

Hi Jolly's Tomb, Quartzsite, Arizona May 2017 Start

Hi Jolly's Tomb, Quartzsite, Arizona May 2017 End

88 Shades RV Park, Quartzsite, Arizona

Quartzsite, Arizona

Hi Jolly's Tomb, Quartzsite, Arizona

Quartzsite Public Library May 2017

The Great Tree. A 1,010 year old Iron Wood

Tyson's Well and Museum, Quartzsite, Arizona